Among the first conservatives to congratulate Republican President-Elect Donald Trump was the last of his competitors to concede in the GOP primaries, Texas Senator Ted Cruz.

ed Cruz hailed the election of Donald Trump as an “amazing victory for the American worker,” saying early Wednesday that the victory represents a wholesale rejection of the Obama administration’s progressive agenda.

Cruz in a congratulatory Facebook post encouraged Trump to immediately begin undoing the landmark legislation of the last eight years, in order to install a far-reaching conservative agenda.

“Americans voted for Republicans because of a promise to go to Washington to reverse our current course, and end the Washington cartel — a promise to drain the swamp,” he wrote. “Now is the time to follow through on those words with action.”

Cruz also laid out a series of priorities, including repealing Obamacare, securing the border and confirming conservative justices to the Supreme Court, saying he is eager to aid those causes.

Indeed, President-Elect Trump’s advisors have a good eye for the long game, and they already released two lists of conservative nominees to replace the late Antonin Scalia on the Supreme Court.

It was in May that Trump unexpectedly released a list of 11 judges.

The list included: Steven Colloton of Iowa, Allison Eid of Colorado, Raymond Gruender of Missouri, Thomas Hardiman of Pennsylvania, Raymond Kethledge of Michigan, Joan Larsen of Michigan, Thomas Lee of Utah, William Pryor of Alabama, David Stras of Minnesota, Diane Sykes of Wisconsin and Don Willett of Texas.

…

In September, Trump had added to his list, perhaps in response to critics who noted the first list was made up of mostly white men.

US District Court Judge Amul Thapar was the first South Asian to be named to an Article III federal judgeship in 2007.

US District Court Judge Federico Moreno serves on the district court for the southern district of Florida, is Hispanic and was born in Venezuela.

Robert Young, the Michigan Supreme Court’s chief justice, is African-American.

Judge Margaret Ryan is a military veteran and serves as a judge on the US Court of Appeals for the Armed forces.

The only non-judge on the list was Sen. Mike Lee of Utah — coincidentally a close friend of Trump’s former presidential primary rival Sen. Ted Cruz. While Lee declined to back Trump, Cruz endorsed the GOP nominee later in the day the list was released.

The list contains some real judicial superstars, but there’s a prominent name missing… and perhaps the best fit for the job.

People tend to forget that Senator Cruz is a Harvard Law School graduate, the longest-serving Solicitor General in Texas history, and was an Adjunct Professor at the University of Texas School of Law, where he focused on U.S. Supreme Court litigation.

Cruz also clerked for William Rehnquist, Chief Justice of the United States.

As Solicitor General, Cruz argued nine cases in front of the Supreme Court (winning five), and authored more 70 briefs for the high court, including the amicus brief signed by 31 state attorney generals in the landmark 2008 Heller case affirming the right of citizens to bear arms.

A textualist in the model of Scalia, Cruz is a solid ideological fit for the empty seat, and at just 45 years old, could potentially be an impact on the court for three decades or more.

The job of Supreme Court Justice would seem to be a natural fit for Cruz’s talents and abilities, and in taking the position, would lift Cruz above day-to-day Republican party politics, which also benefits Trump.

The only foreseeable snag in the idea is that Texas is one of the states in which the sitting governor cannot simply appoint a nominee to carry out a vacated Senate seat. There would have to be a special election to fill Cruz’s vacated seat… and do you really think we can find another pro-gun Senate candidate in Texas?

Bob Owens is the Editor of BearingArms.com.
Bob is a graduate of roughly 400 hours of professional firearms training classes, including square range and force-on force work with handguns and carbines. He is a past volunteer instructor with Project Appleseed. He most recently received his Vehicle Close Quarters Combat Instructor certification from Centrifuge Training, and is the author of the short e-book, So You Want to Own a Gun.
He can be found on Twitter at bob_owens.
https://bearingarms.com/author/bobowens-bearingarms/